"Spink provides a history of baseball before 1910; position-by-position biographies of former players and of every major league player of that era; sketches of managers, magnates, journalists, and umpires; the lineup of every championship team from 1871 to 1910 World Series."--Back cover.

Sabermetrics: Baseball, Steroids, and How the Game has Changed Over the Past Two Generations offers an introduction to this increasing area of interest to statisticians, students of the game, and many others. Pairing a primer on the applied math with an overview of the origin of the field and its context within baseball today, the work provides an engaging resource for students and interested readers. It includes coverage of relevant baseball history, Bill James and SABR, broken records and steroids. Drawing on the author's experience teaching the subject at Seton Hall University since 1988, Sabermetrics also offers practice questions and solutions for class use. - Provides an accessible, brief introduction to the practice of sabermetrics - Approaches the topic in context with recent trends and issues in baseball - Includes questions and solutions for math practice

Cincinnati Reds leadoff hitter Johnny Temple batted over .300 three times between 1954 and 1959. A tobacco chewing and tough-talking hustler, he had a fiery disposition on the field, which led many sportswriters, teammates and opposing players to refer to him as a throwback to baseball's early days--an Eddie Stanky or Enos Slaughter type who would challenge anyone to a fight. He and Milwaukee Braves shortstop Johnny Logan engaged in one of the Major League's longest-running feuds. Temple was an expert glove man, forming one of the premier double play combinations of the 1950s with shortstop Roy McMillan. Following his retirement in 1964, making ends meet became a daily struggle. Temple's life ended in disappointment and disgrace.

Native Kentuckian Theresa Dowell Blackinton gives readers an insider's look at the Bluegrass State, from the revelry of the Kentucky Derby Festival to quiet, cool Mammoth Cave. Blackinton provides suggestions for unique trip itineraries, including Horsin' Around, Traveling the Bourbon Trail, and The Best of the Bluegrass State. Complete with tips on where to find the best bluegrass tunes and barbecue in Owensboro and how to rent a house boat to cruise the Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area, Moon Kentucky gives travelers to tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience.

During the mid-1950s, an unlikely star stood alongside baseball standouts Mickey Mantle, Henry Aaron and Willie Mays--a slugger with a funny name and muscles so bulging that he had to cut the sleeves off his uniform to swing freely. Ted Kluszewski played little baseball in his youth, making a name for himself instead as a hard-hitting football player at Indiana University before showing potential on the diamond and being signed by the Cincinnati Reds. Between 1953 and 1956, no other player in major league baseball hit more home runs than Kluszewski. If not for a back injury, he might have gone down in major league history as one its greatest players. With detailed statistics from both his football and baseball careers, this biography chronicles the unusual odyssey that took Kluszewski to the big leagues and ultimately made him a ballgame icon in the 1950s.

With almost 150 years of baseball history, the stories of many players from before 1900 were long obscured. The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) first attempted to remedy this in 1989 by publishing a collection of 136 fascinating biographies of talented late-1800s players. Twenty-three years later, "Nineteenth Century Stars" has been updated with revised stats and re-released in both a new paperback and in ebook form.

The 1972 World Series was a terrific clash between two rising Major League franchises, the Oakland A's and the Cincinnati Reds. Neither had won the pennant in decades. Twice removed from their original home in Philadelphia and unappreciated in Oakland, the A's quietly played excellent ball, their long hair and mustaches symbols of rebellion. Led by manager Sparky Anderson, the clean-cut Reds--baseball's most conservative club--were becoming a powerhouse and were the favorites entering the Series. This book chronicles both the A's and the Reds' journeys to the memorable '72 Fall Classic--where six of seven games were won by a single run--with batter-by-batter coverage of the diamond exploits of Bench, Perez, Rose, Rudi, Odom, Tenace, and others.

Drawing on the author's 30-year study of football statistics, this book presents new methods for analyzing the game in different ways. An examination of known distances for missed field goals offers an accurate method for evaluating placekickers. Reassessments of punters and running backs are included, along with an overhaul of the NFL's passer rating system. Topics previously unexplored through statistics are covered, such as momentum, defining "What is a dynasty?" and "What is a Cinderella team?"

This issue of The National Pastime is dedicated to baseball in Houston since 1961. Each annual issue of TNP has centers on the geographic area of SABR’s national convention summer site. In 2014 the convention took place in Houston, Texas. The local chapter (named for former Houston Astro Larry Dierker) produced a coffee-table book cover HOUSTON BASEBALL up to 1961, so this issue of The National Pastime focuses on the space age and the arrival of Major League Baseball in the region. So here we have a special issue centered almost entirely on the Houston Astros (né Colt .45s) and their two influential and iconic homes, short-lived Colt Stadium and the Astrodome. The Houston MLB franchise has amassed more than its share of history in the five-plus decades since their launch. A well-worn adage is “everything is bigger in Texas,” and that certainly applies to the role of the Astrodome in pop culture, and to the outsize personality of team owner Roy Hofheinz, who was one part P.T. Barnum, two parts George Steinbrenner, and all Texan. If you weren’t able to attend the convention in Houston, please enjoy reading this issue of The National Pastime as your virtual trip to “Space City” in the Lone Star State will employ seventeen SABR members as your tour guides: Contents Introduction by Cecilia Tan Houston’s Role in the Initiation of Sunday Night Baseball by Bill McCurdy Movies, Bullfights, and Baseball, Too: A Sports Stadium Built for Spectacle First and Sports Second by Eric Robinson Wooing Women Fans:The Houston Astros by Will Flaherty The Colt .45s and the 1961 Expansion Draft by Stephen D. Boren and Eric Thompson Dick “Turk” Farrell: Houston’s First All-Star by Ron Briley The 1963 Pepsi Cola Colt .45s Baseball Card Set by Charles Harrison Astros 1, Mets 0: Almost Three Games in One by John McMurray The 1968 All-Star Game by Brendan Bingham The Saga of J.R. Richard’s Debut: Blowing Away 15 Sticks at Candlestick by Dan VanDeMortel From the Gashouse to the Glasshouse: Leo Durocher and the 1972–73 Houston Astros by Jimmy Keenan There Used to Be a Big Dome by Francis Kinlaw Houston’s Fallen Star: Don Wilson by Matthew M. Clifford Rainout in the Astrodome by Rick Schabowski Catching Rainbows and Calling Stars: Alan Ashby and the Houston Astros by Maxwell Kates The Greatest Game Ever Played? October 15, 1986 by Ron Briley The Houston Astros Hall of Stats by Adam Darowski Astrodome Proves to Be No Hitters Park by Paul Geisler Dome Attendance Below League Average by Paul Geisler

On September 11, 1985, with a sell-out crowd of 52,000 fans on hand at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium and millions of others watching on television, Pete Rose collected hit number 4,192 of his career and passed Ty Cobb as the all-time career hits leader. As he reached first base, thousands of cameras flashed, his teammates mobbed him, fireworks exploded and the crowd overwhelmed him with a seven-minute standing ovation. Rose was on top of the world. Less than four years later, he would be banned for life from baseball for allegedly betting on major league games, roundly criticized in the press by both fans and fellow players, and then convicted for tax evasion. In 2003, fourteen years after he was made ineligible for the Hall of Fame, Commissioner Bud Selig took up Rose's application for reinstatement, igniting once again an intense debate about his legacy and baseball's long-standing zero-tolerance policy on gambling. This book gathers the available facts of Rose's life and career, as well as the scandals he was embroiled in, leaving the reader a more informed participant in the ongoing discussion.